Gettin' Artsy

I continue to have a great deal of fun with exploring my artistic side in paint.  My first solo effort, which I enjoyed sharing with friends on Facebook, I think of as "rainbow tree".  Though I was asked if there was any particular symbolism to it, there really wasn't.  I enjoy right colors against black, and I enjoyed painting trees in my first class, so the notion was born to do a colorful tree silhouette.  I plot out the shape I wanted and plan the color transitions, I sketched some lines with ordinary colored chalk (a very handy tool, it turns out) and then broke out the paintbrushes.  

Just starting out with the chalk lines visible.  

The finished product!

Folks seemed to like "rainbow tree," which was very encouraging.  My next "project" was actually going to be doing some exercises to practice shadows and shading, but I started drawing a peculiar sort of doodle that took on a life of its own and it became something I had to paint.  The "rule" of the doodle was to draw a small, four-lobed shape, and follow the symmetry working outward with added embellishments as the design grew.  I used my handy-dandy home photocopier to make several copies of the original sketch, and then busted out the colored pencils to try out some different color schemes in mock-up.  My first inclination was to keep going with the rainbow theme:

Fun to color, but a little..."too much".

That didn't "work" for me, so I thought of leaving some of the inside space neutral and trying rainbow-with-black.  

Better, but still not working.

That just didn't do it, either.  Then I hit on a very different approach going very minimalist with the colors and focusing more on the geometry I'd created.  I chalked the lines onto a fresh canvas and got out my trusty tube of black paint.

Blacking in from the center out.

Starting to look like something!

Next came the secret weapon: red!  Of all the possible colors, bright, primary red seemed like the one that would really make things "pop".

Now in color!

After that, it was time for some touch up, and then some *really* filddly border-work around the central medallion.  I admit, it did not turn out with exact perfection, and if I let myself I could touch little bits of this work up ad-infinitum.  I like the overall effect, though, so I am going to make myself step away from the paintbrush and accept it for what it was.  

Et voila!  The finished product!

I do wish the lighting was a bit better in that final photo, but still, there we go!  I have a couple more of these "medallion" designs on my idea wall and I'll probably do those next.  I'm sure the kittens will be delighted to help, too!

Fun With Paint

So, I just had the best weekend, feeling like a kid again because I just got myself a bunch of art supplies and had a blast painting.

I'm not really a visual person, and fine-motor skills have never been my forte, so I would never have thought that painting would be a viable hobby for me.  Turns out, I may have been wrong.  I doubt I'll ever be "professional grade" or anything close, but I'm having a lot of fun and I think I can still manage some okay stuff.

I blame a friend from church for starting me down this path.  This particular friend is a regular patron of a nearby Paint Your Own Ceramics type shop, which also happens to hold a number of different craft and painting classes.  After seeing my friend's posts and looking at upcoming offerings a few weeks ago, I became intrigued and decided--what the heck?--to try out one of the canvas paining classes.  These feature an image designed by an experienced artist, who gives step-by-step instructions how to re-create that image for yourself.  I really enjoyed the class, and I discovered that even when I couldn't do things "perfectly" the medium of acrylic paint is pretty forgiving.  So I could do this!

My first effort.  The leaves were only supposed to have thin streaks down the middle for veins, but mine turned out thicker.  Then again, that produced a really interesting two-tone effect, and my trees turned out well, so WIN!

Now hooked, I took two more classes.  The latest turned out really well, and the instructor jokingly remarked that, now I'd attended a few classes, I ought to be getting my own supplies to do my own art....  Obviously, great minds think alike, because I'd already ordered some books on painting (it pays to be grounded in the basics before going wild).  Those books arrived on Friday, much to my delight.

My latest painting class result.  This got rave reviews so now IT'S ON!

My appetite thoroughly whetted, it was "kid in a candy store" time.  Reference books in hand, and some extra money in the bank, I skipped to the nearest art supply store and proceeded to run amok.  I picked up an all-purpose easel, palette, some good-quality brushes and paints, a few additional accessories, and a goodly selection of stuff to paint on.  Once home, it was time to convert my poor, dignified dining room into a studio!

Leo and Castor examine my purchases to ensure quality.

Step one, of course, was to remove the (very nice!) table cloths and fold them gently onto a hangar to be stored in a safe location.  Step two was to deploy protective measures:

Smock and drop cloth (re-purposed heavy-duty garbage bag, since it was convenient) to prevent messes--or at least contain them!

Then I got to figure out how the easel worked--pretty straightforward once I got the hang of it--and deploy it in tabletop mode with palette and water-jars standing by.

Looking more like a studio!

Then came the fun part: unpacking all the paints, brushes, sponges and other supplies.  I then arranged them in the very nice caddy I found at the art shop.  With the easel being portable/collapsible, and almost everything else fitting in the caddy, stowing everything away for guests or cleaning days and getting it all back out again will be easy, which is why I splurged on the caddy.  Also, Pollux can't steal my paint brushes when they're stored inside.  That bit is important.

Stuff!

Next I just had to put something on the easel and I'd be ready!

Voila!  A studio!  I switched over to the long side of the table for more room.  

All we required was someone to do the painting....

Portrait of the artist as a young geek.

Then it was playtime.  I started by testing out my colors and getting a first feel for how they mixed.  The basic paint set involves a set of neutrals, a big tube of white, and two shades of each primary for mixing all the secondary colors.  (Turns out you need a yellow-favoring red for mixing oranges, and a blue-favoring red for purples and so on.)  So that's what I've got, though I confess I also picked up tubes of gold, silver and copper metallics.  Because shiny!

After that I tried a few basic exercises proposed by the one book to grow more familiar with my paints and brushes, which were interesting.

Leo and Castor help me with my work.  

Some of these early efforts have now been put up on the wall to add color, because an artistic space should be lively.  I practiced diluting the paint so it acted more like water color, using different brushes, and mixing colors.  I have been able to re-create the slate grey of Siamese Blue Point, but haven't quite managed Leo-Cat Orange, though I think I am close.

My "play wall"--and yes, that is painter's tape, so no walls were harmed in the making of this photo.

Yesterday, I tried creating some "moonglow" using a dry brush, and a nebula effect with sponges.  I think other techniques might yield better results, but that wasn't bad for a first try.

Dry brush "moon" and sponge-tap "nebula" done as an experiment on newsprint.  

That, then, was my weekend.  I'm looking forward to many more spent fooling around in front of an easel.